This invention has to do with header units carried on legume harvesters designed for the picking and shelling of peas or other similar fresh legumes. For this specification the picking of peas will be discussed although it is expected that this invention could find equal utility in picking broad beans and lima beans.
Pea pods are harvested by means of a wide header passing over and through a stand of vines. The vines are stripped of the pea pods by a picking reel which is a rotating drum having spring mounted fingers extending outwardly from its surface. The picked pea pods are directed over the picking reel through a chute formed between the picking reel and a cover over the reel. The pods and some vegetation mass is deposited on a main apron which, with the assistance of guides to be discussed further on, direct the pods and vegetation mass to an elevator conveyor which takes the pea pods and the vegetation mass into the combine section of the pea harvester.
A highly successful contemporary pea harvester uses a plurality of augers in place of the main apron mentioned above. In this prior art embodiment the picking reel flings the picked pods and a certain amount of vegetative matter onto the augers from above them. Two sets of augers are used. Each set of two augers are driven independently toward each other so that "hulme", a term used to describe the mass of pea pods and vegetative matter, deposited thereon is directed inwardly from the outboard ends of the picking reel to the central area of the header, that is, close to the medial center line of the machine. The two sets of augers then deposit the hulme onto the elevator conveyor for transport to the combine section of the pea harvester.
In another prior art embodiment the augers have been replaced by conveyor belts that direct the discharge from the main apron onto transverse conveyor belts independently driven toward each other and directed to the elevator.
It is also known that there exists a broad bean harvester specially designed by the assignee of this invention that incorporates a reel for picking up a windrow of broad bean vines at a gentle and slow rate. The windrowed hulme is deposited on a main apron which delivers the windrowed hulme directly to an elevator conveyor. The main apron is horizontally disposed tangentially to the reel above the centerline thereof. A pair of compacting conveyors are arranged vertically above the main apron and driven toward each other but spaced apart to provide an opening where the windrow is slightly compacted, that is, the sides of the windrow are directed somewhat inwardly such that it is not too wide to fit onto the elevator conveyor.
The present invention has the advantage of eliminating the augers and the transverse belts and improving the flow of the hulme through the head of the pea harvester. The "flow" of the hulme is the movement of the mass of pods and vegetative material. With the earlier transverse belt system, and with the auger system as well, the hulme had to make two consecutive right angle turns between the main apron and the elevator belt. These turns hamper the speed of the hulme travel through the header and thus limit the speed of the harvester through the crop.